San Diego Chargers QB Philip Rivers Making Gloves Gameday Standard

By Anthony Blake

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Equipment doesn’t make the player, but it can make the player more confident. With quarterback Philip Rivers and the San Diego Chargers, the signal caller’s most recent announcement that he would be wearing gloves on a weekly basis in 2013 might be the perfect example of such an occasion.

Gloves and quarterbacks aren’t normally two things that are thought of as synonymous, but Rivers did sport the gloves for three games during the 2012 season. In those contests, the Chargers actually had some success posting a 3-0 record with Rivers throwing zero interceptions during that time period. Considering he had 15 on the year and they all came in the other 13 gloveless NFL games, the QB might be on to something.

The fact that new offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt came out in support of his quarterback speaks to the fact that expectations will again be high for the Bolts’ man under center. It could also be the new OC who is pushing Rivers toward the gloved approach to quarterbacking given his time spent with the Pittsburgh Steelers where Ben Roethlisberger sports gloves on a weekly basis as well as his head coaching stint with the Arizona Cardinals where gloves were a staple of Kurt Warner’s gameday attire.

Some naysayers may claim this is the beginning of the end when a quarterback needs something as frivolously superstitious as gloves to regain confidence, but it may not be that simple. For a golf analogy, sometimes feel is everything. If a player doesn’t have the belief that he can succeed without a certain extra piece of equipment, then he likely will not.

Gloves could just be the ingredient that brings winning back to the Chargers organization. That seems strange to say about a team based in sunny Southern California where wearing gloves would seem like a detriment, but Rivers could prove it to be the case. Don’t be so quick to call this a desperation move by a quarterback trying desperately to find himself. Rivers may be better at protecting the football in the 2013 campaign as a result.

Anthony Blake is a Senior Writer/Copy Editor for Rant Sports. You Can Follow Him on Twitter, on Facebook, or add him to your network on Google.